heads, it makes them feel that they are not the children of the dust alone, but the heirs of immortality.

Such, my brethren, is the simple instruction which I have at present to offer you with regard to the education of your "little children." Teach them, first, and before all things, the life of their Saviour. Teach it them regularly and diligently, until they love him,-and the great object of your wish is accomplished. It will not indeed make them learned in words which they do not comprehend, nor in doctrines which they cannot understand; but it will furnish their minds with high thoughts and lofty sentiments. It will afford them the genuine model of all that is great or good in time, and open to their undoubting faith all that is blessed or glorious in eternity.

To all of you, my brethren, whether

high or low, to whom the sacred name of parent belongs, the duty equally extends ;-to all of you, the same means of performing it are given: And, upon all of you that are engaged in this tender office of" feeding the infant flock of Christ," may his blessing descend!-Whenever you are met together with your little ones in his name, may his protecting and paternal spirit be in the midst of you! and so enable you to perform it, that "the "rest of their lives may correspond to "this beginning," and your reward meet you, not only in time, but in immortality.

SERMON II.

ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

MATTHEW, Xxii. 37, 38, 39, 40.

"And Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

WHEN we were last assembled, my brethren, I felt it my duty to offer you some imperfect observations on one of the great duties which this season involves, that of the religious instruction of the young.

The period of life to which I then alluded, was that of infancy; that earliest season of human nature, when reason and reflection are not awakened, but when the heart and the imagination are open to their first and most indelible impressions.

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In the performance of this great and sacred duty, I entreated you to observe, that you are not left to the feebleness of your own wisdom;-that Heaven itself has deigned to illuminate and to direct you;-that the "Book of Salvation put into your hands; and that almost the moment your "little children" leave their cradle, the Gospels of their Lord are awaiting them, by the study of which you may be able to lead them to the wisdom, not only of time but of eternity. I reminded you, my brethren, with what exquisite wisdom these compositions were adapted to the minds of the young; and, in illustrating some of the advantages

which arose from early and habitually acquainting them with the history of their Lord, I attempted to explain what was implied by himself in these tender and paternal words,-" Suffer the little chil"dren to come unto me, and forbid them "not."

The earliest powers that awaken in the infant mind, are those of Affection ;—the love of parents,-of kinsmen,-of benefactors; and gradually the love of whatever is good or great in the characters or in the history of their species. It is by the presentation of such examples to their infant eyes, that the various capacities of their nature are gradually unfolded ;that their tastes and their ambition are formed; and that the character of their future being is perhaps chiefly determined. It is on this account, that the knowledge and the study of the Gospels is of so deep importance in the earliest